Lights for Carlin Yard

For some time I have been wanting to add some yard lights to Carlin Yard.  I had seen some interesting ones on ebay but they were all shipping from China and I am reluctant to buy directly from China.  So I checked on Amazon and found the same ones that shipped from the US.

There were 3 light towers in a pack for about $20.00 including tax.  They each have two LED's and have plastic towers similar to what is on some of the Miniatronics products.  The set comes with 1000 ohm current limiting resistors for each tower.

While I liked the green color of the towers, I felt they were too shiny and plastic looking.  So I sprayed the towers with Dullcoate and that made a big improvement.  As Dullcoat is clear, no need to mask off the LED's.  I also painted the bases a primer gray to represent concrete.  I found that Evergreen #423 3/32 plastic tube fit inside the base of the tower with no adhesive needed.  This creates a stem to secure the tower to the layout.

To mount these, I drilled a  hole through the 1/4 inch thick deck that was just a bit larger than the plastic tube.  Then applied a small amount of canopy glue to the tube and pushed it into the hole.

To connect each of the yard lights to the 12 volt DC power, I made some small circuit boards with the resistor and a 2 position terminal block that the small wires from the light tower can be easily connected to under the bench work.  The larger 22 gauge wires were then connected to one of the 12 volt terminal strips.

And this is the result I was looking for. 

Signaling for the Lovelock section

The Lovelock section of the layout is connected to the main line by a turnout at the bottom of the helix.  The helix already has signaling controlled by an occupancy detection circuit.  I want the new signal and both of the existing signals to monitor the position of the turnout as well as occupancy of the helix.

To accomplish this I used a diode matrix type of technique.  Refer to the drawing below.  The two diodes that are in parallel with the relay coils are just there to suppress back EMF when the relay opens and don't affect the logic of this circuit.  The two diodes that are on the input from the detection circuit isolate the two relays from each other and prevent the 12 volts from the tortoise contacts from reaching the relay 

The use of a Peco insulfrog turnout at the bottom of the helix means there is no frog to route power to.  This left both sets of contacts on the Tortosie switch machine available to control the signals.  Referring to the photo below, +12 volts DC was connected to both commons (red wires).  The orange wires are connected to the position contacts.

This is the new circuit board to control the new signal.  The red and black wires are 12 power, the orange wire is from the Tortoise motor contacts, and the yellow wire is from the occupancy detection circuit.  The red and green wires are the outputs to the signal.  Notice the diode on the board between the terminals where the orange and yellow wires are terminated.  This diode allows the occupancy signal on the yellow wire to activate the relay but blocks the turnout signal from affecting the relay on the board for the helix signals.

At the board that was already installed to control the signals at the top and bottom of the helix, the diode was placed in line on the wire that connects it to the detection circuit.  This diode will prevent the signal from the orange wire on this board from affecting the relay on the new board.

So here's the new signal on the Lovelock siding.  It will indicate a red whenever the helix block is occupied OR the turnout is aligned to the staging yard.

And here is the same signal showing a green when the turnout is aligned to the lovelock siding AND the helix block is clear.

Expanding sounds around the layout

I had received another Soundtraxx decoder and got it all installed as the sound for the road switcher in Carlin but was trouble programming it.  I would get a "No Ack" error message on the DT402 throttle I was using to program.

After viewing a YouTube video presented by George at Soundtraxx I learned that programming voltage is half of what track voltage is and that Soundtraxx decoders in particular are sensitive to this issue.  Soundtraxx had made a booster circuit for programming but it seemed to be out of stock and perhaps was no longer being made.

What I had not considered was how all this extra wiring running around the layout would degrade the programming signal so I decided to abandon the programming bus idea and instead use a jumper cord to program the sound decoders.  

I found these great 3D printed panel mounts for Power Pole connectors on ebay and installed them on the fascia next to each of the sound control panels.

A 1 inch diameter hole was drilled through the fascia next to each of the sound control panels.

The panel mounts fit neatly into the hole.  The wires from this connection are connected to the program position on the switch.

Then another connector replaced the existing Cinch Jones connector that my bench programming track plugs into and I made a long enough jumper cord to reach from the programming track output to anywhere on the layout.   The lead for the programming track also got it's Cinch Jones connector replaced.

Sound comes to Battle Mountain

Following the addition of locomotive sounds for the Carlin yard switcher, I have now added sound for the Lovelock local road switcher in Battle Mountain.

The Halliburton Barite processing building was the perfect place to install one of the 8 ohm, 3 watt speakers that I have been using on the layout.  It is in about the center of the Battle Mountain industrial district.

The decoder used was a Soundtraxx Econami designed for an HO Scale Atlas Diesel.  I glued an empty plastic prescription bottle under the bench work to hold the decoder in place.  The sound quality and volume from this decoder is quite impressive and it has more choices for programming to match the type of locomotive being modeled so I've been fine tuning those settings.

A control panel similar to the one in Carlin was created for this new decoder in Battle Mountain.   An additional decoder has been ordered and that one will be for road switcher sounds in Carlin where the speaker and control panel are already installed.

Expanding the signaling, again.

Over the past few weeks I have been working on the signaling on the layout.  First to correct some problems I've had in one of the signal blocks, and then to expand the signaling to the upper helix. The signaling on this layout is just red / green aspects with the actual signals being something I have scratch built myself.  Below are links to some of the earlier posts I have made on the signaling.

July 2021 - Expanding the signaling

July 2020 - My home made searchlight signals

May 2020 - First working signals on the layout

So the first step was to correct a problem I have been having with sensitivity on the Southern Pacific line in the 3rd signal block which includes the Carlin yard.  The NCE detectors I have been using don't have any sensitivity adjustment so I picked up a circuit from Azatrax that does have a sensitivity adjustment to see if that would make a difference.  After installing it, I was able to adjust it to get the results I wanted.  A nice thing about this Azatrax circuit was that the double pole relays were included on the board so I did not have to make up a relay board like I have been doing for the NCE sensors.

The sensors and relay board that had been removed from the 3rd signal block location was installed to provide detection for the upper helix which has become the 4th signal block.  They works fine there, I think because the track arrangement is simpler.

At the top of the upper helix the occupancy for each track is indicated with bi-color LED's that were added to the upper return loop control panel.

At the bottom of the upper helix near the east end of the Carlin yard, a pair of signals indicate the occupancy within the helix.

At the west end of the Carlin yard where the crossover leads to the WP track, another signal is connected to the WP signal block.  In the future I would like to have the signal only be green if the block is clear and the turnout is aligned for the crossover.

Summer 2024 layout update

We are already almost half way through 2024 and June 20th marked the first day of summer this year so here's a summer layout update.

I have been working on finishing the occupancy indicators for the east end staging and return loop.  Going to be using the last 2 of the 8 channels of the Azatrax MRD8 unit that I never thought I would fill.  With a total of 32 input wires and the small spring type connectors used on the board, I have found it difficult to get a reliable connection for the last few inputs especially when more than 1 wire has to connect to a terminal.  So I have installed a 25 screw terminal strip to make it easier.

I needed some more Azatrax IR sensor pairs for that project and when ordering them I noticed the Azatrax also has a dual track occupancy detectors so I ordered that as well as I am also going to be adding signaling to the upper helix.  I noticed that these have a sensitivity adjustment on the board and am looking forward to seeing how that works.  I'll post more detail on both of these projects as they develop.

And I have been working on finishing another 3D printed house for Carlin.  All three of the houses got a primer coat at the same time last year. This one, the 2nd one recemt;u got a base coat of white and I am now working on hand painting the details.

The Overland Hotel

The building that hides the speaker for the Carlin yard switcher sound is now finished.  This was a Design Preservations Models - Hayes Hardware kit.  The building itself was not modified as it fit nicely into the space I had for it.  

The theme of this building is that of an older hotel which has seen it's better days pass when the interstate highway was built.  It has been refurbished and has had a large neon sign installed on the roof that can been seen from the interstate highway in the hope of attracting business.

I had recently purchased a 3D printed set of 180 roof top details and used 9 of those on the roof of this building.  The animated sign if from Miller Engineering with the support structure being scratch built from styrene.  

The electronics for the sign clip into a plastic cap from a prescription bottle which is glued under the roof of the building.  The power wires for this go down through a hole in the bench work and are connected to a voltage regulator from Miller Engineer specifically for these signs.  The wires for the speaker also go through the same hole.

DCC Sound my way - Part 2

After doing a bunch of experimenting with DCC sound over several years I had decided that instead of installing sound decoders in my N scale locomotives I would use just a few as stationary sound decoders in choice locations addressed to the locomotive working in that area.

To start with, I wanted to have the sound for the yard switcher in Carlin yard.  One of the small speakers was placed inside of one of the buildings across the street from the yard about in the middle.  It was glued down to the base as shown here.

The building that will go here is a Design Preservation Models Hayes Hardware kit shown here half finished.  It will be a hotel when it's finished.  Look for a future post on that project. 

Because I sometimes change locomotives assigned to the Carlin yard, I would need to be able to program the sound decoder to an address matching the address of the locomotive.  I installed this control panel on the fascia which allows for this.  Thinking ahead, I also included control for the road switcher assigned to the Carlin yard as that will be a future step.  A cable for the programming output was run around the layout from the command station to this panel.

The Digitrax SFX0416 decoder is quite small and was placed within the bench work behind the control panel.  It is pointed out with a red arrow in the photo below.

DCC sound my way - Part 1

While I have DCC decoders installed in nearly all my locomotives only 1 has a sound decoder.  It's this Atlas SD7 which has an early MRC sound decoder.  The frame was milled to be able to get the speaker in.  Something I really did not like was how with any brief interruption of pickup from the track, the sound would cut out then start up again, plus the sound quality was not very good with the tiny speaker.  So this loco ended up sitting on a siding with it's idling sound running.  

At some point the technology of electrical capacitors developed into what are called a "super capacitor" which has a large amount of capacitance in a small size.  Adding such circuits to a DCC sound decoder installation eliminates this problem of the sound cutting out but it's still a challenge in N scale to find room for decoder, a speaker, and a super capacitor circuit.

For my next attempt at DCC sound, I chose to build a sound car.  This was built around an Atlas covered hopper car and used a Soundtraxx decoder and a "keep alive" super capacitor circuit from Train Control Systems.   Here is a LINK to a short Youtube video demonstrating this project.  And here is another LINK to this project on my DCC blog.

I ran this sound car as the first car behind the power after programming it to the same DCC address as the locomotive consists.  Sometimes when switching cars at either Battle Mountain or Carlin, I would park this car on a siding and with the address again programmed to match the locomotive doing the switching. This car worked well in both of these applications but the sound quality still left something to be desired.  An unexpected take away from the experience with this sound car was that I realized I got the most enjoyment from the locomotive sound when I was doing switching.

When I installed the grade crossing signals in Carlin, I used an 8 ohm, 3 watt speaker that I found on Amazon for about $6.00 and was small enough to fit into a house that was next to the grade crossing.  Here is a LINK to the post I made on that project.  I really liked the sound quality from this speaker.

About the time I had bought the Soundtraxx decoder I had also purchased a Digitrax SFX0416 sound only decoder with the idea to build a sound dummy locomotive with a Kato SD40.  I never got around to this project but one day was wondering if this decoder could drive one of the 3 watt speakers and how that would sound.   The decoder was able to drive this speaker and sounded better than anything I've heard from a speaker in an N Scale locomotive.  So it was decided that I would use this sound decoder and this speaker as a stationary setup to add sound to the Carlin yard switcher.  The next post will cover the details of how I did that.

Glitter Gulch moves to Carlin

Over 5 years ago I modeled a roadside casino in Winnemucca.  It was made from a kit bashed building kit and included a Miller Engineering animated sign.  Here is a photo from that post in February 2019.

Problem with that scene was that it is in an out of the way location and the sign was not very visible to operators and visitors to the layout.  My version of downtown Carlin is somewhat freelanced but based on some buildings that had been there at one time.  I decided that one building would be a casino and moved the sign to this new building.

The building is a Design Preservation Crestone Credit Union kit.  A hole was cut into the roof of the building and a scratch built rooftop structure was added for the electronics that run the sign.  The Miller Engineering sign was mounted on the front of the building over the center 2 second floor windows.

The sign's electronics were mounted to the inside of the roof of the rooftop structure.  The switch on the circuit board sticks out  of an opening on the back so is accessible to turn the sign on or off.

For now the ground floor is empty but the building and it's base are removable so in the future I plan to add lighting and details to the interior.

Tortoise motor noise problem

In a post earlier this year, I reported about a Digitrax DS64 that had inputs that were no longer working.  I had replaced the DS64 with a control circuit I built myself.  This was on my WP staging yard. Recently I have been having some issues with the circuit that controls the SP yard as well. 

Specifically, the turnout at the wye that creates the return loop would sometimes cause the turnouts that control the siding on the return track to switch.  As this wye turnout can be triggered by a train passing a sensor while the train is still passing through the siding turnouts, this would cause a derailment.

The turnouts on this staging yard are controlled by three different circuits as shown in this photo.  One controls the yard ladder, another the wye turnout and the third controls the siding turnouts.

I suspected that some sort of noise was getting onto the input connections of the board that controls the siding turnouts.  This was confirmed by monitoring the inputs with an oscilloscope. The inputs to the circuit are normally high at +12 volts and when the buttons are pressed or the IR sensor activated, they go low to 0 volts.   On the oscilloscope it could be seen that spikes were randomly occurring when the wye turnout motor was running and occasionally when the spike was large enough the inputs to the siding control board were being activated.

What was happening here was that arcing between the motor's commutator and brushes on the wye turnout were creating these spikes and the magnetic field from those spikes on the motor wires was being picked up by the input wires on the siding control circuit.    Notice in the photo of the circuits how many of the wires are bundled together.  This can contribute to this happening as can the age of the motors.  The Tortoise motors on this layout range in age from 9 to 30 years old.  When I built this staging yard 9 years ago I twisted the motor wires which is supposed to help eliminate this problem and it did for a long time.

After reviewing several YouTube videos and some experimenting at the work bench I found the most effective solution was to suppress the noise as close to the source as possible.  I added a .01uf ceramic disc capacitor from each motor lead to the case of the motor.  After removing the motor from the Tortoise case, a pair of .039 holes were drilled in the circuit board at the locations pointed out with green arrows in the photo below.

One lead of the capacitors were soldered to the case as shown in this photo.  To get a solder connection to the case I first scraped that spot on the case with a file and used flux and a hot soldering iron.  The other lead of the capacitors went through the holes in the board.

Then the leads that went through the holes in the circuit board were trimmed and soldered to the circuit traces as shown in this photo.

The placing of the capacitors this way prevents them from interfering with any of the moving parts inside the Tortoise housing and avoids the center screw mounts.

A recheck of the siding control inputs with the oscilloscope after the capacitors are installed shows a cleaner voltage with any spikes being very small.  After repeated testing, everything is working fine now.  I am now wondering if it was these voltage spikes that caused the inputs on the DS64 to fail.